The Song of Scouts: The 104th
by EnnaArik
Summary: For Nicolette Gregor there has always only been one thing she ever wanted to go; join the Scout Regiment. Her goal is simple and it doesn't include friendship and it certainly doesn't include romance, but once she enlists and becomes a cadet of the 104th Trainee Squad she finds both.
1. Chapter One

_*****Hello my lovelies! Now, as you may or may not have noticed I have another "Song of Scouts" series. I wanted to do two different Attack on Titan stories, but instead of making them completely separate, since they both would have followed the events of the anime anyway I used the same title adding "The 104th" to this one as this story while center more on the cadets of the 104th Trainee Squad, including a new original character. Also I will go ahead and tell you now that this will also feature a romance which will be a focal point of my personal story, and my original character who is centered on for a majority of this story will also be featured in future chapters of my original "Song of Scouts" series. Now, shall we begin?**_

Nicolette stared at her reflection, particularly lingering at the sight of her masses of wavy copper shaded hair. The mental debate had been raging now for some time. To cut, or not to cut? That was the question. "What's wrong Colette?" A soft voice asked, but she did not acknowledge the voice, she never acknowledged the voice.

"Colette?" This voice was different, this voice came from behind her, this voice was real. She turned to face her older brother, Jonah, his stern eyes staring at her with his brow furrowed. If it wasn't for the fact he was six years older and stood at least over a foot taller than her, people would assume they were twins. They both had the exact same copper hair, soft tanned complexion, high cheek bones, and subtle square shaped chins.

"What is taking you so long?"

"I'm thinking." She informed him as she turned back to look in the mirror. Now she stared back at her own gaze, into her own dark olive green colored hues. "I don't think I like my hair anymore."

Jonah laughed as he stepped forward into her room and stood beside where she sat at her vanity. "Well it's not like you can do much about it now." He insisted. "And you don't have the time to worry, you're going to be late." Jonah didn't stay long after that, leaving Nicolette to her thoughts as she returned to her debate despite Jonah's rush.

First she tied her hair in a low pony tail. Next she took a pair of scissors and cut just above the hair tie. She tossed the now removed hair off to the side and ran her fingers through what was left. Now her hair fell just to her shoulders, making it much more manageable. She tied a top layer up into a pony tail and braided her already side swept fringe up and out of her face, pulling it off to the side and clipping it in place. She dressed in a pair of comfortable dark green capri cut bottoms with black slip on shoes to match her favorite black V-neck top with the sleeves she kept rolled up to her elbows. Now she was ready.

Jonah hugged her outside, squeezing her body against his threatening to never let go. Nicolette knew she would miss him, knew she might regret leaving him, but it was something she knew she had to do. "Don't let them make fun of how short you are." He advised, laughing as he did.

"Why not, I let you get away with it, don't I?" She joked as she picked up her pack from the ground.

"Be careful Nicolette." Jonah instructed; he only used her full first name when he was trying to make a point. "I'll see you soon, ok?"

"Ok." She smiled softly up at him, "Maybe once I'm gone and you don't have anyone to cook for you, you might actually go find yourself a girl." Nicolette laughed as she started to walk away from Jonah; they both smiled at one another and waved before she headed further down the street, leaving home.


	2. Chapter Two

"You there, who the hell are you!?" The instructor shouted at some poor tiny little blonde boy. Nicolette didn't really care much for what the boy had to say, or for what the instructor had to shout. Her attention was more so focused on her pants.

She hated those damn pants. They were white pants, and she hated wearing white. Jonah had insisted they would go better with her uniform then her capri cut bottoms, but Nicolette still insisted on wearing her black top. Yes, wearing white pants was a rather silly thing to care about, but she just hated how easily they got dirty.

"And what about you?" Nicolette's heart dropped as she realized the instructor was speaking to her. She looked up, her eyes coming to meet his, the bright sun beating down on them both as they entered a rather long silence coupled with frightening stare down. "I said what about you! Who the hell are you?"

"Nicolette Gregor from Stohess District!" She shouted back at him, more alert now.

"And why the hell are you here?" He shouted back.

"Because I choose to be here!" She answered, shouting, sparing no specific details which only seemed to upset the instructor.

"Is that so? You think you're too good to share your motives?"

"No sir! But I don't see why others need to know. My motives are my own, they will not motivate anyone other than me, so why share them?"

There was silence, the instructor took a step away and looked from her, "You have much to learn, luckily for you we do see a purpose in sharing our knowledge, or else you wouldn't last five minutes outside the walls!" The instructor moved on.

Nicolette exhaled a deep breath, as if she had been holding it in ever since the instructor had came up to her. After that she paid less attention to her pants, and more so to the instructor as he continued to make his way through the cadets, shouting at them and what not.

"And who the hell are you?"

"Jean Kirschtein, from Trost District!"

"Why are you here?"

"To join the Military Police and live in the interior!"

Nicolette noticed a few stares of slight judgments casted by her fellow cadets over at the boy, Jean, as if they were offended with his honesty. "So you want to live in the interior, do you?"

"Yes!" Jean answered with an enthusiastic smile.

Without a moment of hesitation the instructor slammed his forehead against the boy, head-butting him so hard Jean fell to his knees. "Who said you could sit? If you can't handle _this _you can forget about the Military Police!"Nicolette noticed a few glances here and there, even a few smiles, as if the others were taking a certain amount of joy from Jeans pain.

The instructor carried on, passing torment to a boy who stated he wanted to serve the king, and then next to another who screwed up his salute. But then there was silence and Nicolette noticed the instructor's attention had been begged away from the poor excuse for a salute to a girl who actually had the idiot thought to eat a potato. When he confronted her she looked around, as if she seriously thought he was talking to anyone else. "I'm talking to you! Who the hell are you?"

"Sasha Braus, from Dauper Village on the south side of Wall Rose!" She saluted him with the potato still in her hand.

"And what are you holding in your right hand?"

"A steamed potato, sir." She answered as if she saw no fault in any of it, then she had the brilliant idea to admit she stole it.

Nicolette rolled her eyes, turning her attention away not caring to hear what she was sure to be an epic scream of fury from the instructor as he punished the poor girl.

As everyone else was watching the potato girl and instructor have it out over the potato she took the time to really look them over. She wondered how many would actually graduate. Who might be top ten. Who might join the Garrison Squad, and who else like her would be foolish enough to join the Scout Regiment.

Whether they were called there by honor, couldn't salute worth a damn, or loved potatoes, whether she liked it or not she was stuck with this lot-minus the one who'd quit anyway. These people here with her now would become her brothers and sisters in arms. She would train with them, and those who joined her in the Scouts she would fight alongside. This was the 104th Trainee Squad.


	3. Chapter Three

Nicolette watched from a window as the carriage full of dropouts made its way up the hill and away from the barracks. Day one and they were already too afraid. Nicolette didn't really care; she thought it better that way, better to have them drop out on their own accord then to have themselves humiliated by being turned down come graduation time. Besides, those were fewer cowards she'd have to put up with in the field when the time came.

Her eyes trailed away once the carriage started to disappear beyond her vision, and her attention found its way to a small group of her fellow cadets outside the cabin all chit-chatting away like they were already the best of friends. She hadn't been paying attention at how loudly they were speaking until now.

"We haven't heard anything about where you're from," A freckle faced boy( Marco she believed his name was) the one who had mentioned his desire to give life and limb for his king, asked some scrawny looking brunette boy who was all chummy looking with the tiny blonde boy, Armin.

"I'm from Shiganshina." Eren, she suddenly remembered the scrawny boys name.

All the others seemed to look horrified. Their eyes all widened and jaws seemed to drop. Nicolette had to admit, the thought even crossed her mind, _so he was there. _

"You were there that day, weren't you?" Connie, the one who couldn't salute worth a damn, spoke up as if he seriously didn't realize how rude he was being about it. "Did you see the Colossal Titan?" He spoke with excitement, as if he was almost jealous he didn't see it himself.

Eren seemed a little shocked at the boys excitement, but that night at dinner he sort of used it to his advantage. He suddenly seemed so proud about it, almost bragging as he told the others around him about the whole ordeal, about when the Colossal Titan appeared outside the wall and lead an attack on Shiganshina. But then his demeanor suddenly seemed to change, and it was Marco who finally convinced the others to leave him alone about it. Eren however, obviously afraid of looking weak insisted he was fine and continued on about how Titans weren't that big of a deal. _Idiot. _Nicolette wasn't sure how much longer she could stomach listening to Eren as he went on, and her attention begged for something more entertaining than someone trying to get popular by acting like a hard-ass, but then… "I'm going to join the Scout Regiment and drive the Titans out of this world, I'm going to slaughter them!"

"Are you crazy?" Nicolette's eyes shifted from Eren and to Jean now, he ever so carelessly leaned his jaw against his hand as he called Eren out. "Did you just say you were going to join the Scout Regiment?"

"Right that's right." Eren answered defenselessly. Suddenly Nicolette didn't find him as incredibly moronic, but still pretty stupid. "Aren't you the one who wants to join the Military Police so you can have an easy life?" Anger was very much apparent in Eren's voice. Nicolette had a bad feeling about where their conversation was about to go, and if she really cared she knew she'd stop them before it got that far but…

"I'm all about being honest, you see." Jean commented bluntly. "It's much nicer than being a loser who acts tough but is secretly scared shitless." It was like he had read her mind, and Nicolette smiled as she suddenly found herself silently rooting Jean on.

Eren stood up, obviously offended, and some of the others tried to stop him but he was clearly too much an idiot to listen. Jean then stood up as well, walking over to meet Eren, standing taller than him with a smug smirk across his face as Eren glared up at him. But then before either one of them had the chance to take it any further the bells rang and the intension seemed to die down a little. "Look, I'm sorry." Jean was the first one to break the silence, "I didn't mean to dismiss your ideas. Let's be friends."

Nicolette rolled her eyes in disappointed as she stood up, listening as Eren apologized before he left. As Nicolette was walking out, she head Jean shout, "Hey you!" And her feet froze as she turned, but as she looked back at him she saw his eyes weren't on her, but rather a black haired girl who had been behind her. Nicolette turned back away quickly before anyone noticed she had thought he had called out to her and listened as to Jean speak to the girl as she continued to exit the dining area, "I've never seen anyone who looked like you before," _Is he trying to compliment her?_ "You have very pretty black hair." _Oh my God he is! _Nicolette found herself laughing within the safety of her own mind at Jeans failed attempts to flirt as she continued on to her barracks.

The first day had been rather eventful, a decent chance for her to really size up her fellow cadets and get a good idea of whom she'd be dealing with from this point.

Connie was an over enthusiastic moron who didn't seem to have any idea what he was doing.

Marco was clearly the noble type with a heart of gold.

Eren was just an idiot.

And Jean was painfully honest, narrow minded, and couldn't flirt to save his life.

She could tell the next four years were going to be interesting.


	4. Chapter Four

Nicolette woke up early the next day, eager to get to training. Today was their aptitude test with the Three Dimensional Maneuvering Gear. By the time she dressed and headed outside she noticed the sun just now coming up, realizing just how early she had gotten up. She wasn't just excited about this for her own sake, but to see how the others fared during the test, to see how they really measured up. To Nicolette the abilities of her new comrades were just as important as her own.

"You're up early." A voice caught Nicolette off guard and she jumped a little before turning to see Connie smiling up at her from the ground. He was lying down in his casual clothes, arms crossed behind his head. "Nicolette, right?"

"What are you doing down there?" She asked as she slowly stepped down off the porch of the barracks cabin. "You'll get dirty." She insisted, still ignoring his request for confirmation of her name.

Connie sat up, dusting off his sleeves a bit as he turned his eyes away from her and looked up at the sky. "I like to watch the sun rise sometimes, it's more entertaining to me than the sun set."

"What's the difference?"

"A new day is starting, instead of ending. New chances."

"How poetic." Nicolette rolled her eyes.

"You try very hard to keep to yourself. You know that's now how this works, right?" Connie stated as he stood up to his feet.

"What do you mean?" Nicolette inquired, not really caring but asking anyway.

"We have to establish trust in one another, make relationships. That's the only way we can go into the field at ease. If someone rides with another they don't know anything about, someone they don't trust, it makes for a mess of things."

"And you'd know from experience?" Nicolette looked at him now with dull eyes, calling him out. Connie seemed caught off guard by her question and was silent. "I do agree with you to some extent, but outside of training, outside of the field, there's no need for me to further any kind of relationships with anyone. It only makes things worse really."

"W-Why do you say that?" Connie asked her, intrigued.

"Because when I watch a comrade die I don't want to be so overcome with grief I let my guard down. I only choose to care for the ones I know have a low risk of death, and that would mean no one here."

"Do you really think you can live a happy life that way?"

"Who said anything about a happy life? I just want to kill Titans." Nicolette was done with this conversation and spared no additional words or glances to Connie before leaving him where he stood.

Nicolette was the first to arrive for training, standing in front of the stationary gear used to test the cadets as the sun positioned itself in the morning sky and others filed in and began to whisper, guessing who would fail and who would succeed. Once the instructor arrived he explained the test and began calling names for cadets to gear up and begin. Nicolette observed carefully as the first wave of cadets began.

Mikasa's form was perfect. Connie seemed to have a rough start but got the hang of it. Sasha seemed completely eased and even bored, swaying around like it was a game. Then there was Jean. Nicolette's attention lingered on Jean as he worked his balance, staying steady with a bit more effort but still working it well. Something about his face in that moment, the determination and discipline it took for him to prove his skill, it was something Nicolette found reasonable admirable. He might have wanting more in life than to have a comfortable living in the interior, but there was something very driven about him.

Then there was Eren. All eyes slowly seemed to make their way to cast stares his way as he found himself completely upside down. "What are you doing Eren?" The instructor shouted at Eren when he finally noticed the poor boys situation. "Straighten yourself up!" Nicolette couldn't help but laugh at the irony; just yesterday he was bragging about slaughtering Titans but today he couldn't even work the omi-directional gear properly. Others recalled the same as Nicolette and a few muffled laughs seemed to break out among the cadets as they all watched Eren struggle. Eren seemed horrified at his own short comings, and finally the instructor gave orders for Eren to be let down.

"Gregor, up here now!" The instructor shouted and Nicolette was quick to obey. As Eren slumped away in defeat Nicolette was hooked up to the gear and lifted up. And just like that, it was all it took, and she was floating steady. Her arms remained out just an inch or two away from her body as if that was what she assumed needed to be done in order to work the gear properly but in all honesty it was all much simpler than that. Her positioned remained well balanced, and as she begun to smile at her accomplishment she noticed a harsh glare casted by Eren as he looked at her as if she had just showed him up. "Well done Gregor, we might actually make a solider out of you." The instructor gave the signal for her to be lowered, and as her feet touched the ground once more her eyes remained on Eren as he turned his back to her and walked through the masses of cadets to join Mikasa and Armin.

"Not bad Nicolette." Connie's voice rang from behind her and she turned to face him with a soft sigh.

"You again?"

"I just wanted to congratulate you. You did wonderful."

"I don't need you to congratulate me."

"I know that." Connie insisted as he moved to stand by Nicolette, "But I wanted to anyway."

Something about how nice he was being to her, especially after this morning, was rather odd to Nicolette. "Why are you being so nice to me?" She asked, a little hint of anger in her voice. After all, she had made herself very clear to him earlier that morning that she had no time for this sort of friendly nonsense yet here he was, complimenting her and all like he hadn't paid attention to a word she he said.

Connie looked over at her; their eyes meeting in a level stare due to them both sharing a similar height. He looked more serious, like he was suddenly overcome with determination. "I've decided I'm going to be your friend."

"I don't want you to be my friend." Nicolette insisted harshly. "Didn't I explain that to you?"

"And I've deiced not to care. You need friends Nicolette, whether you realize it or not. We all do. It's the only thing that can make all of this easier. Friendship is what keeps us sane during training, and out in the field. You can't survive without it. You may not realize that now, but soon you will and if I do nothing it will be too late by the time you come to understand it. So I've decided to be your friend, whether you like it or not."

"That's enough for today!" The instructor shouted once everyone had a chance to test out the gear. "Get a good night's rest and we'll pick up from here tomorrow morning."

Nicolette looked over at Connie and he smirked at her with a certain sense of insistence and she knew he wasn't going to let this go. She sighed and rolled her eyes, knowing there was more than likely nothing she could say to make him give up on his new found mission. Despite him lacking any real knowledge of the outside world, he seemed rather philosophical about the whole thing and that kind of determination wouldn't be easy to break. "Fine." She admitted defeat, knowing it would be better in the long run to just go with it. "But stop calling me Nicolette." She insisted as she walked away from Connie to head back to the barracks.

"Then what should I call you?"

"Colette." She stopped for a moment and looked back at Connie, trying hard not to hate him for his noble motivations, "My friends call me Colette."


	5. Chapter Five

It was impossible not to hear all the gossip. Everyone was whispering, pointing, and most of all laughing. News spread fast, and as Eren ate in the corner with Mikasa and Armin his face looked mortified at his own failures from training as everyone made a joke out of it.

"I think it's rather sad." Nicolette commented simply. She had been sitting with Connie for dinner and had remained silent up until now.

"Huh?" Connie looked up from his plate at her, "What's sad?" He asked as she followed her eyes to look across the dining hall at Eren. "You mean him?"

"Not his embarrassing failure, but the way everyone is laughing at him for it. Sure it was ironic and all but that's no reason to kick while he's down. They should want to help him improve himself, not judge him for his faults."

"Look at you, talking like you have a heart. I think I'm starting to rub off on you." Connie insisted.

"Well I think his pain is our gain." A voice spoke from down the table. Nicolette and Connie both turned, facing Jean as he smirked at them both. "After all, one less person to worry about beating for a top ten spot. Not like he would have been much competition to begin with."

"Weren't you just saying yesterday how you wanted to be his friend?" Nicolette called him out, rather taken off guard by his sudden change in attitude.

"Sure. But who wants to be friends with a guy who can't even work omi-directional gear?" Jean defended himself. "Just being honest."

"Sounds more like you're just being rude." Nicolette accused him.

"You can say whatever you want about me, won't hurt my feelings any, but while you're busy judging me you should take a moment to cast some of it your way too." Jean insisted to her with a soft chuckle, "After all, you're saying how others shouldn't be so mean to him and offer to help, but I haven't seen you go offer your wisdom. Face it, you're just like the rest of it, too caught up in the humor of it to honestly care. Hell, maybe you're even like me and just want less competition."

"I'm nothing like you." Nicolette spoke sharply. "You only care about yourself."

"And you don't?" Jean laughed again, "I heard you this morning talking to Connie, so you're not fooling me trying to act all noble."

Nicolette furrowed her brow, glaring at Jean with no greater desire than to punch him across his stupid face. But she didn't. Instead she stood up, grabbing her untouched bread from her plate and walking away without another word. Connie didn't try to stop her and Jean said nothing else to her as she left.

As she walked out from the dining hall, in the soft darkness of the early night Sasha was visible across the way, staring longingly at the dining hall. Nicolette had almost forgotten about Sasha's existence, and the fact she was still being punished for the potato incident and still having the skip meals. Nicolette looked down at the bread in her hand, thinking to herself…she had only finished less than half of her food before Jean pissed her off to the point of leaving, but still that was more than Sasha had gotten. She thought about Jean, and she thought about his annoying attitude and how she just wanted to beat them to a bloody pulp. She didn't want to be like him, she didn't want to only look out for herself. Connie had been right; this whole thing wasn't going to work if she kept that philosophy. She crossed through the darkness to Sasha, whose eyes watched Nicolette carefully as she held the bread out.

"What's this?" Sasha asked, almost in disbelief.

"Me proving a point." Nicolette stated simply.

"To who?" Sarah further inquired as she slowly reached for the bread.

"To myself." Nicolette smiled softly at Sasha as she took the bread and ate it like she had never eaten in her life. "It's Sarah, right?"

As Sasha swallowed the last piece of bread she smiled in absolute bliss as she dropped to her knees and hugged Nicolette's legs, "And what can I call you, you angel on Earth?"

"Colette." She answered simply.

Sasha bounced up back to her feet and reached her arms high above her head with a large smile, "I'm going to see if I can get more ffffoooooodddd!" Sasha skipped off into the dining hall before Nicolette had time to suggest that was a bad idea in case she was caught. Still that simple moment, that single act of kindness, made Nicolette feel a certain sense of ease.

She wasn't like Jean at all, and she wasn't going to end up like him either.

The bell rang and Nicolette headed back for her barracks before the masses would come pouring from the dining hall, and she was in no hurry to catch sight of Jean for the rest of the night. Or for the rest of her life for that matter.


	6. Chapter Six

Everyone was gathered together this time. This time they'd be called up one at a time to test their skill with the gear, and all eyes were on Eren as he made his way up first. "He was asking for advice last night in the barracks." Connie whispered to Nicolette.

"And did you give him any?" She asked.

"There's none to give. You know as well as I do it's not really something you can teach." He defended himself.

"Only he was much ruder about it last night." Jean's voice came from behind Nicolette. Nicolette looked at Connie with disbelief in her eyes as Jean continued, "He was actually mocking the poor guy."

"Hey!" Connie elbowed Jean in the ribs, "I wasn't _that _bad about it. I was just trying to motivate him is all."

"Didn't sound like motivation me." Jean snickered as he walked up further to stand at Nicolette's side. "Sounded more like you were just being a good ole' fashioned jackass."

Connie looked at Nicolette as if he was trying to convince her otherwise with his eyes but she only glared at him, "You're unbelievable, you know that?" Nicolette huffed. "Trying to act like I'm the one who needs to change when you're just as two faced as Jean. I can't believe I let myself get worked up because of you two." She crossed her arms over her chest and walked forward to get away from both of them as she turned her full attention back to Eren as he finished hooking up to the testing tool and the instructor asked if he was ready.

Slowly Eren's feet began to rise from the ground and he held his arms out to balance himself. Eyes went wide and there were soft gasps as Eren managed to stay steady. In a moment of victory everyone cheered, as if they had been secretly rooting for him the whole time. For a moment Eren actually looked confident…until he fell backwards. "No!" His disappointed was apparent in his voice, "No, I can still do this!" He insisted as the rest of the cadets fell silent after his short lived triumph.

"Let him down." The instructor demanded, ignoring Eren's pleas, before suggesting Eren switch his gear belt. There was a bit of confusion among the cadets as they rewatched the whole process again as Eren refit the belt on and was hooked back up to the testing took before lifted up into the air. This time as he remained steady there were no signs of certain failure, only the sight of him remaining balanced in mid air using the gear and shock lining his every facial feature. "Your equipment was defective," The instructor explained, "The belt you were using had a broken clasp. I've never heard of his part breaking before, but now we'll be sure to add it to the maintenance checklist." The other cadets seemed suddenly so impressed with Eren at his accomplishment; being able to defeat the faulty gear if only for a moment.

After Eren was let down and he returned to Mikasa and Armin the tests continued as scheduled. It was no shock that Mikasa, Sasha, Connie, and Jean all passed with ease. There was actually hardly anyone who struggled. When it came time for Nicolette she only added to the list of passes. The instructor congratulating everyone on their hard work and dismissed after that.

Just like the night before all anyone could seem to talk about was Eren. Everyone made point to find him in the dining hall and congratulate him, acting like they had believed him the whole time. She hated the way they were all acting, and watched from her seat, alone, in the corner at all their fake smiles that Eren just ate right up. He was an idiot, acting all high and mighty, and for what? Because he could keep his damn balance? His parade of joy was almost as annoying as all the other cadets pretending to care about him. It was all almost as annoying as Jean's stupid blunt bullshit. It was all almost as annoying as Connie acting like he cared about 'friendship' when he was just as bad as all the other two-face back stabbers in this place. She was so fed up with all of them.

"Are you excited for tomorrow?" Sasha's voice at her side suddenly startled Nicolette, interrupting her inner rant of hate as she turned her focus to Sasha.

"T-Tomorrow?" Nicolette had so distracted she had completely forgotten what was on the training schedule.

"We're going to be testing our gear in the forest, actually flying!" Sasha seemed so excited, she even threw her arms up in the air. "I just can't wait!" Sasha grabbed Nicolette by the shoulders, shaking her gently, "Can you just imagine? Your whole body gracefully moving through the air at high speeds! It's so terrifying yet awe-inspiring!"

Nicolette found Sasha's enthusiasm rather comforting, and smiled softly as she grabbed Sasha by the wrists to cease the shaking. "Yes, I'm sure it will be fun." Nicolette commented simply.

"I'm glad you passed today." Sasha lunged at Nicolette's wrapping her arms around Nicolette's body. "I mean, I knew you would, but I'm still glad." She separated herself from Nicolette, smiling from ear to ear, "it wouldn't be as fun tomorrow without you!" In that moment Nicolette couldn't help but compare Sasha to a puppy; feed it a scrap and it loves you forever.

"Well, I better be going to get some rest. I'll see you back at the barracks." Nicolette insisted as she excused herself the table and headed out from the dining room with soft steps to not alert anybody. Outside the night was quite, but it was still easy to hear the loud voices of celebration coming from the dining hall even as Nicolette walked further to create distance.

"Colette!" Connie's voice shouted at her and she turned to watch him rush after her from the dining hall.

"What do _you _want?" She lashed out at him, turning back around to continue forward.

"To apologize." Connie stated as he caught up with her, gasping to catch his breath after his short sprint. "I shouldn't have acted like that to Eren, I was being a jerk, I'm sorry."

"And why the hell are you apologizing to me? You weren't a jerk to me, were you?"

"Well…no..."

"I don't give a damn about how you act, or who you act towards, just as long as you don't try to pretend to be all sweet and golden heart in order to judge me. I don't have the patience for that sort of bullshit like the rest of those judgmental morons."

"And I get that, that's why I'm apologizing. I didn't mean to make you feel bad or anything about the way you were, I was just trying to help you and I was too busy to notice I was being such an asshole. Colette, please forgive me. I realize what I did was wrong and now I'm trying to apologize so why can't you just forgive me?"

"Because I don't trust you." Nicolette insisted as she came to a stop, turning now to face Connie with a glare. "And I'm done listening to you and all your bullshit lectures about friendship when you don't even make an example of yourself from your own words."


	7. Chapter Seven

Sasha was lying on Nicolette's bed, using Nicolette's lap as a pillow as Nicolette read. The rest of the girls were as talkative as ever, and Nicolette found herself incredibly grateful that Sasha wasn't much for a conversational companion. Nicolette found comfort in the silence she shared with Sasha as her eyes remained on her book and Sasha's were on the ceiling. Then finally Sasha spoke, after a long a long and dramatic yawn as she sat up, "Connie apologized to Eren."

Nicolette looked up from her book, her eyes shifting to glance at Sasha. "Excuse me?"

"After he followed you out when you left the dining hall, he came back inside and went straight up to him and apologized for the way he had treated him last night when Eren had asked for advice on how to work the omi-directional gear. Eren insisted it was no big deal but Connie just wouldn't let it go."

"Why are you telling me this?" Nicolette asked as she lowered her book to her lap.

"Because I'm guessing that's what you two fought over."

"And what makes you think we had a fight?"

"Because I saw you get angry with him this morning during training, and because I just have a good sense about these kind of things." Sasha insisted as she finally turned to look back at Nicolette. "He really did seem genuine when he apologized." Sasha reassured her, "I can tell you want to forgive him too."

"I have no desire to forgive him." Nicolette insisted as she returned her attention to her book, obviously done with this conversation.

"Eren forgave him, and Eren's the one he was being a jerk to, right? Was he ever a jerk to you?" That was all Sasha said before she rolled off Nicolette's bed and climbed up the ladder to her own top bunk. She left Nicolette's with those words that now filled her thoughts, dominating her focus. Nicolette tossed her book to the other end of the bed and sighed in defeated, Sasha was right. Connie had never been nothing but kind to her, and when she treated him with anger he only apologized and wanted to correct his mistakes that weren't even against her.

The next morning Nicolette had made the painful decision to confront Connie and forgive him as well as apologize for herself and her recent rude behaviors towards him. Of course, making the apology at breakfast was out of the question because then there'd be people there; more people meant more chance of someone overhearing her admit she was wrong and she just wasn't going to have any of that nonsense. Instead she went to his barracks; remembering he had mentioned a habit of sleeping later than the others to make up for his early sun rise watching days, so she figured while everyone else was heading to breakfast he'd still be getting ready which would present the prime opportunity to apologize. She stood outside the barracks for a moment or two, trying to muster the courage and find the right words. She was hopeful he would accept her apologize, but still feared the same rejection she had inconsiderately casted him. But she figured that was what she deserved anyway, and she'd accept it should he make that choice. With a deep inhaled she moved on, stepping up the porch of the cabin and opening the door…

"WHAT THE HELL, GET OUT!"

Nicolette turned around as fast as she could, slamming the door shut behind her and resting her back against it as she stared, wide eyes, straight forward trying to mentally erase what she had just seen; Jean, completely naked, enjoying some quality alone time with himself. Her face burned a dark red and her body was frozen still as she tried to forget what she had seen. But one thing was she was absolutely certain of; Connie definitely wasn't in there.

She moved at a slow pace as she made her way to the dining hall, each step she took putting distance between her and the barracks, trying to lose the mental image along the way she further she got. She tried to regain focus back on the task at hand but it was hopeless, all her mind seemed to focus on was what she had seen, and found herself actually enjoying the thought. _What the hell is wrong with me? _She lost patience with herself for a moment, begging her own mind to just let it go but she had a feeling it wasn't going to happen any time soon. If she couldn't rid herself of the thoughts she was just going to have to deal with it as she moved on to find Connie.

It didn't take Nicolette long to spot Connie in the masses of cadets in the dining hall for breakfast; his shaved head was kind of a dead away in large crowds. Trying her best to push all distracting thoughts regarding Jean as far back in her mind as she could, she moved forward and walked up to Connie and sat down across from him. He noticed her the moment she was close, and his eyes watched her carefully as she sat down. They just stared at one another for a brief moment before Nicolette finally spoke, "I shouldn't have been so quick to judge you, and it was wrong of me to have yelled at you."

She was afraid of his reaction, afraid of what he might say, but as she watched a smile play along his expression she suddenly felt at ease. "It's alright, I would have been pissed to. You weren't wrong, everything you said was right. I'm just glad you could forgive me, that's all I wanted."

Then Nicolette felt a burning in the back of her head, and just like that she knew someone was watching her. Her entire body tensed because before she even turned she knew who she'd see. Still, she moved in her seat to look behind her and sure enough there was Jean, casting the most vicious glare she had ever seen. But she didn't see that glare for long. No, what she saw when she looked at him was a face immersed in pleasure. She saw his bare chest, muscles well toned and gentle tanned complexion. She saw every inch of his naked body from his strong muscular arms to his fit abs, right down to his erection. And as she stared at him now, her eyes filled with nothing but the recollection of what she had walked in on, Jean seemed to know her every thought.

"Colette, are you alright?" Connie's voice snapped her back to reality and she turned back towards him as quickly as she could.

"Sorry, I guess I just don't feel too well."

"Maybe you should go to the nurse?"

"No, I'll be fine." Nicolette insisted, "I just need to focus."

"Well you better be focused because today our real training starts!" Sasha's incredibly chipper voice rang through Nicolette's ears as Sasha tackled her with a hug. "Hurry up and eat, I'm ready to get going! It's going to be so much fun!" Sasha popped up from the seat she had so suddenly taken in order to embrace Nicolette and started to stretch her arms. But just as the seat had been emptied by Sasha, it was filled by another.

Horrified, Nicolette caught sight of Jean, now next to her, from the corner of her eye. "Connie, do you mind if I have a word with Nicolette?"

Connie looked at them both suspiciously, but said nothing to question Jean's request. "Sure." Connie rose from his seat without hesitation and moved around the table to grab Sasha and drag her away from them both.

Nicolette felt an overwhelming sense of extreme discomfort at the physical proximity at which Jean was sitting next to her, and once Connie and Sasha were both gone he only moved closer. "Did you tell him?" Jean whispered to her, she felt his breath against her ear. She shook her head. "Good, you better not tell anyone."

"Are you threatening me?" She whispered back to him, turning her head to face him; she hadn't realized how close he had been leaning towards her, and their noses almost touched.

"There's no need for threats, because I trust you."

"And why is that?"

Jean smirked at her, "Because you're embarrassed."

"Why would I be embarrassed when you're the one who got caug-"

"Because you liked it." He stated bluntly, "And because you wish you could have seen more, maybe even want to have been invited in."

"Shut up." Nicolette snapped.

"Look me right in the eyes and tell me I'm wrong, I bet you can't. I bet you can't even look at me without seeing it." Nicolette did as he challenged, locking her eyes right with his, but no words fell from her lips. There was only silence, because the minute she looked at him that was all she saw. Jean chuckled softly and started to scoot away. "Who knows, maybe next time I won't tell you to get out."


	8. Chapter Eight

They all rode towards the training forest at full speed, everyone in their proper position and everyone fitted with their new omi-directional gear. This was the first time they'd get a chance to test out the real thing; not some training device stuck in the ground, but actually launch themselves up and get real training done. "Cadets, forward!" The instructor shouted as they began to close the short gap between them and the forest. Nicolette kept her eyes forward, her full focus on the training. Nothing was going to distract her now, not Connie, not Jean. This was the moment she had been waiting forward. "Launch!" As the instructor commanded every last cadets as they reached the forest launched up into the air, flying off the backs of their horses as they swung their bodies with full control.

Nicolette cherished the moment as her body moved up, launching forward as she directed herself through the trees. There was silence among the cadets, only the sounds of their gears working as they continued on, launching and swinging their bodies around the trees. It was all so fast paced, yet for Nicolette it moved slowly. As the world passed by her in mere glances she saw beauty in every moment.

The sun began set when the instructor called them all back. Nicolette wasn't sure how long then they had been out there but it only felt like five minutes. One by one, cadets fell from the trees, landing on the forest ground and calling back their horses. As they all gathered the excitement rose among them as they all shared their experiences from the training. There was an overwhelming sense of enthusiasm among them, they were all buzzed from the adrenaline and hyped up.

They all rode back at a calm pace to the barracks; the excitement dying down a bit as everyone suddenly remembered how exhausted they were from the full day of training. Before the cadets could head off to dinner it was their responsibility to clean up and feed their horses. As Nicolette rid her horse of its saddle she suddenly felt something, someone, behind her. "So, how was it for you?" Jean's voice whispered from behind her.

"Excuse me?" Nicolette turned her head to face Jean, trying her best to shoot him an intimidating glare.

"I meant the omi-directional gear, of course." Jean smirked at Nicolette, stepping so close to her that he pressed his body ever so gently against hers.

"What do you want Jean?" Nicolette rolled her eyes as she tried to scoot away from Jean.

"Just making friendly conversation." Jean insisted.

"Too friendly if you ask me." Nicolette shoved her elbow into Jean's gut. Nicolette turned to shove Jean away, leering at him as he stumbled back. "I don't get it, why are you hitting on me like this?"

"What do you mean?" Jean acted over all dramatic, pretending to me clueless on purpose.

"Wouldn't you prefer to be flirting with Mikasa?"

Jeans face turned dark red as he furiously shook his head, "I don't know what the hell you're talking about." Jean insisted as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked away.

"Oh, don't you?" Nicolette rolled her eyes and sighed. She looked at Jean, smirking insistently, "I even bet she was the one you were thinking about when you were-"

"Shut your mouth!" Jean shouted.

"You sure have some nerve," A voice caught both Jean and Nicolette off guard as their attention turned to face Reiner with a leer in his eyes. "Shouting at a lady like that." Reiner insisted as he stepped towards Jean, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him away from Nicolette. "Don't you have something more productive to do with your time besides harass girls?"

"I wasn't harassing her." Jean shoved himself away from Reiner huffing and mumbling under his breath.

"Sounded like harassing to me." Reiner stepped in front of Jean, blocking his view of Nicolette. "Why don't you just get going?" Jean glared at Reiner, shifting his eyes to look over Reiner's shoulder at Nicolette. Jean didn't say anything to Nicolette, just glared before turning his back to them both and storming off. Once Jean was gone, Reiner turned to face Nicolette, smiling reassuringly. "I hope he didn't bug you too much. Jean can be pretty annoying sometimes."

"I was handling him just fine." Nicolette insisted.

"Oh, I know that." Reiner chuckled. "I just wanted an excuse to come be your hero, even if you didn't really need one." Reiner smirked now at her. Something about the way Reiner smirked at her, the way he spoke to her, it made Nicolette blush ever so slightly.

"Colette!" Sasha interrupted the moment, rushing to Nicolette's side and grabbing her arm. "Dinner time!" Sasha didn't even give Nicolette the chance to even really say goodbye to Reiner before she dragged her off from the stables and to the dining hall.

That night at dinner Nicolette sat with Connie and Sasha; Connie and Sasha kept going on and on about their experience with their gear. Sasha went on about it like it had all been one big game to her while Connie preferred to over romanticize his experience. Nicolette on the other hand remained completely silent about the whole thing, her focus really not much caring for the topic at hand. Nicolette heard the thoughts all around the dining hall, everyone talking about what they thought it was like working with the gear for the first time. Nicolette tried her best to seem involved in the conversations among Connie and Sasha, but she just couldn't find the proper motivation to distract herself from her own more demanding thoughts.

Her eyes lingered on Reiner on the other side of the dining hall, her eyes gazing at him. Not glaring, not leering, but gazing. There was something rather charming about him and even though she couldn't really figure it out, she couldn't help but be absolutely dazzled by him. She sighed softly as she kept her gaze on him, "Colette, are you alright?" Sasha's voice brought her back to reality.

"What, of course." Nicolette defended quickly. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, you've barely touched your food and only ever really sigh like that when you're thinking." Sasha pointed out.

"So what are you thinking about?" Connie further questioned.

"Just today's training is all." Nicolette insisted. "Which really wore me out, so I think I'll go to bed early tonight." Nicolette excused herself as she stood from the table before Sasha picked up any more sixth sense wonders about Nicolette and her current state of mind-which at the moment seemed to be fixated on Reiner. After Connie and Sasha said goodnight, Nicolette headed to the barracks from the dining hall.

"Don't you know it's dangerous for a lady to walk out after dark by herself?" Reiner's voice caused an instant halt; Nicolette turned to face Reiner, just a few feet from her now as he caught up with her outside the dining hall. "You better let me walk you to your barracks."

"Do you have a knack for saving the day?" Nicolette asked with a soft smile.

"Just trying to over compensate for my natural secret villain persona." Reiner laughed as he reached his arm for Nicolette and took a hold of her wrist.

"And by over compensate you mean hide behind a kind knight-in-shining armor façade?" Nicolette blushed as Reiner slipped his hand down her wrists to lace his fingers with hers as he began leading her through the darkness.

"What can I say? You caught me." Reiner chuckled as they walked together.

"So you mind telling me why all the sudden interest?"

"You'd think it's cheesy." Reiner insisted, blushing.

"I still want to know." Nicolette tried to sound as flirty as she possibly could. The whole concept of actually trying to be appealing to another was all pretty new to her, and wasn't something she normally went out of her way to accomplish.

"It was rather sudden really." Reiner began to explain. "I don't know if you noticed but today when we started training we were positioned next to one another. When we started to use our gear something about the way you maneuvered yourself…it was so poised…it just kind of put me in a stage of awe. Then in the stables, the way you were holding your own against Jean was so spunky and kind of…well, kind of cute." Nicolette blushed, not sure what to say. She had never been complimented like that before and she actually enjoyed it more than she would have assumed she would.

They enjoyed the rest of their walk in a comfortable silence as they finally reached Nicolette's barracks. "Would it be too cheesy to say I can't wait to see you tomorrow?" Reiner asked as he walked her up to the door.

"It would, but I'd still like to hear it."

Reiner chuckled, smiling softly down at her. "Well then, I can't wait to see you tomorrow." Reiner slowly took his hand from Nicolette's only to place it softly against her cheek. He leaned down close to her and pressed his lips against her forehead in a gentle kiss. "Goodnight Nicolette." He whispered to her as she stepped away and waved goodnight. Nicolette stayed by the door, not going inside until after Reiner was a good distance away from her.

"Look at you, you're in love!" Sasha's voice shouted as the door swung opened behind Nicolette.

"Where the hell did you come from!?" Nicolette turned to face Sasha, slamming her hand against Sasha's mouth in fear Reiner might her. Nicolette shoved Sasha into the barracks and slammed the door shit behind her.

"Well I noticed you giving Reiner a longing gaze during dinner, and after you left and he followed you out I was curious so I followed you. After I saw you two holding hands I started following you both on your way but I couldn't hear much, so when you guys got to the barracks I rushed in by the backdoor to listen from the other side of the door." Sasha confessed shamelessly. "It's super cute you know," Sasha stated, "first Connie convinced you to open your heart and mind to new friends, now look at you! Falling in love with Reiner! I'm so proud of you!"

"I'm not falling in love with Reiner." Nicolette argued. "We just enjoy each other's company."

"You can lie to yourself all you want, but you can't fool me." Sasha insisted. "Slowly I can see you becoming less like the hard ass you think you have to be, and more like the woman you want to be."


	9. Chapter Nine

The woman she wanted to be….

It had been two years since joining the cadets, and not a day went by when Nicolette didn't recall those words Sasha had spoken to her that night after their first day out in the field training with the omi-directional gear. Nicolette came to the realization that she wasn't sure what kind of woman she wanted to be, only what kind of solider; but even her philosophy as a solider as crumbling under the weight of change. Nicolette held strong the concept of friendships among cadets to be a terrible idea, afraid personal relationships would interfere in battle, yet the last two years she had grown so close to Connie and Sasha is was impossible for her to even dare think that anymore.

And it wasn't just friendships that had developed in those last two years, there was romance. Two separate ones, in fact. First, there was Reiner. That was genuine, that was driven by pure mutual admiration and affection. It was slow by comfortable, and undefined. They didn't cling to one another like some dramatic couple in hopeless love. In fact they rarely spent much quality time together at all; hell they barely even shared meals. But they both felt growing too close too fast would be dangerous, and preferred to keep distance when they could.

Then there was Jean. Nicolette didn't care much for him personally. She found him rude, annoying, and a bit conceited. But she enjoyed looking at him, even more so when he was naked. Nicolette refused to have sex with him, that was one personal rule that hadn't changed in the last two years; she wouldn't sleep with anyone who she didn't love, especially for her first time. But they had plenty of other fun, plenty of secret fun. Nicolette didn't want Reiner to even catch a hint of her time spent with Jean in fear it might compromise what they were trying to build. They weren't technically together anyway, so it wasn't like Reiner would have any room to honestly be upset over the matter, but she still didn't want to risk it.

In the last two years Nicolette had developed more than she had ever dreams, both on personal and physical levels. She was getting stronger then she had ever been and far more clever.

She worked her hardest to listen and study every lecture they were given, and even enlisted Armin to help her study since he was the smartest cadet she knew. Nicolette was always the first to admit that academics weren't her strong point, but with Armin's help she did better than ever on tests then she could have managed alone.

Physically she had been at such a disadvantage with her shorter height than everyone else, and had more to prove because of it. They all thought she was weak just because she was little, but that didn't mean she couldn't pack a punch. Reiner often assisted her with her physical training, helping her work out even after their daily training was done for the day. Connie also helped as well, mostly with her work in areas of agility since he was so naturally gifted with it himself.

Nicolette often to went to Jean for extra training with their 3D Maneuvering Gear; despite her already being classified as advanced with the gear, she liked to stay polished and liked the extra training to help her remain on top of her game and since Jean was such a master of the gear himself he was perfect to help her.

Nicolette was trying her best to be a well rounded solider and trained more than any other cadet to achieve that goal. She just want to be great in one area, she wanted to exceed proficiency in as many subject matters as she could. And now her chance to prove everything she had been working so hard to achieve was there; their two year fitness assessment.

Today was the pack run. In the rain. Everyone else was dreading it, but not Nicolette. The pack run was always one of her least favorite activities because honestly she was rather terrible at it, but she was eager to get it over with and score high this time. She pulled the hood of her cloak up and walked out into the rain with Sasha as they headed towards the trail. They had to walk two miles from the barracks to the training trail they used that went through the forest, with their packs on the whole walk, before the run began. All the cadets gathered at the starting point, waiting for the instructor to show up and begin the assessment.

Connie and Sasha both waited alongside Nicolette, watching in the rain for the instructor to finally show up. Whenever it was raining he made them wait on purpose, at least that was Nicolette's own opinion on the matter. "Colette," Reiner's voice called out to her as he pushed his way through all the other cadets to reach her. Once Reiner got a bit closer Connie and Sasha both stepped away a bit, knowing whenever Reiner and Nicolette spoke they preferred some degree of privacy. Reiner put his hand on Nicolette's shoulder, their most preferred form of PDA, and smiled softly at her. "I just wanted to wish you luck. I know you've been training hard for this run, and I just wanted to let you know that I'm rooting for you."

Nicolette couldn't help but blush softly, trying to act like he didn't always just make her stomach run wild with butterflies every time he said such sweet things to her. "Thank you." Was all she said to him, and that was enough for them. Reiner removed his hand from her shoulder, and nodded at her simply before slowly making his way back towards where he had left Bertolt.

"You two are so cute together." Sasha stated with a soft whisper as her and Connie both moved to stand back with Nicolette.

"At least they're not always hanging all over each other like Franz and Hannah." Connie insisted as he crossed his arms.

"Franz and Hannah? But they're not a couple." Sasha remarked.

"They say that, but you can tell they are, they just don't like being teased about it."

"They're different from us," Nicolette chimed in on the matter, "They're more infatuated with one another. What they have is simple and doesn't go far beyond the surface. Reiner and I are taking time, building this slowly so it might actually last."

"Yeah, last until graduation and until you join the Scout Regiment and get eaten." Jean butted in the conversation-Nicolette hadn't even realized he had been standing so close. "Falling in love right now is such a waste of time. You should at least wait to see if you even survive your first real expedition outside the wall."

"Is that why you haven't confronted Mikasa about the way you feel?" Nicolette accused Jean, being sure to keep her voice down because she knew how peeved he got when others overheard her accusing him of having feelings for Mikasa. "Because you want to make sure she'll survive as a Scout first?"

"And what makes you so sure she's going to be a Scout?" Jean completely avoided any attempts to deny his affections for Mikasa; he often said defending himself against it only makes him look guiltier of actually caring for her.

"Because I know for sure Eren is, and she'll do anything he does." Nicolette knew that would upset Jean, reminding him of how close Mikasa was with Eren and not him. But she didn't care if she hurt his feelings; in fact it was something she often strived for. At first she would insult him in front of others to help hide their secret, but then she later discovered there was something incredibly sexy about him when he was angry at her when they shared heir intimate moments together.

Before Jean even had a chance to counter with a clever insult, the instructor rode up. Everyone turned their attention to him as he rode past them towards the start of the trail. "Good morning," He greeted them half-heartedly. "This is your first test of your official fitness assessment." He reminded them. "We will run take the longest route, running six miles. If you stop, you fail. And for those of you with dreams of being ranked in the top ten, not one fail on any one of your tests would harm your overall scores beyond recovery and you might as well kiss your top ten dreams goodbye. Now run!"

And so began the first test of their fitness assessment. For Nicolette, this was the first real step in becoming a Scout. These tests were all about proving yourself, showing what you've learned from the last two years, and she was eager to succeed.


	10. Chapter Ten

The run was a nightmare. Nicolette was struggling, but still managing to keep up the pace. But she was getting tired quickly. The air was hot, but the rain was wet and cold and it made her shiver. Her legs were tired already but she refused to give up. They weren't even at the half way mark yet, and she wasn't going to let herself fall behind this easily.

Somehow she was managing to keep up with Krista and a few others in the middle section of their group. She was grateful she was this far ahead, especially when she heard the instructor shouting at Armin for his slow pace. Armin was a weak runner to begin with, but putting that weighed down pack on his back surely wasn't doing him any favors. Nicolette turned to look back; Armin was far behind even the last in line. He was panting and he already looked so exhausted. The instructor was shouting at him, not really even bothering to attempt to motivate him before riding off ahead. Nicolette and Armin might not have been incredibly close beyond their study session together, but she knew how determined he was and felt awful for him, but she also knew any attempt to help him would be frowned upon and surely earn her a failed score on the test.

But then there was Reiner. He scooped Armin's gear off Armin's arm and up onto his shoulders. Nicolette was both incredibly impressed and furious at Reiner n that moment. Sure, it was kind hearted and noble of him, but also foolish to risk his own grade for someone who was falling behind. But just like everyone else, Reiner knew how much this meant to Armin. He wasn't doing this because he pitied Armin, but because he believed in him.

But what Reiner didn't know was how Armin refused to slow anyone else down because of his own short comings. It was a subject Armin often spoke of when he was helping Nicolette study. He always said how honored he was that she asked him for help, because he often felt like he didn't offer much in any other areas despite his incredible desire to be an asset to the team. So when he rushed up to Reiner and grabbed his gear back, Nicolette wasn't surprised. Armin sped up, now with more motivation in his eyes as he caught up even to Nicolette and the others in the mid section. Nicolette was impressed, and as Reiner rushed up to pass them she could tell he was too.

Reiner was one of the first to finish. Jean, Eren, Annie, Bertolt, Connie, and of course Mikasa also finished without issue. Sasha finished before Nicolette, who reached the end of the trail about the same time as Krista and Marco. Armin, despite his earlier sudden rush in motivation, still finished among the last few. They all had to wait at the end of the trail just outside the forest as the last of the cadets finished up, and once everyone was out of the forest the instructor told them to take a five minute break before heading back to the barracks.

Nicolette took the time to find Armin; he was hiding in the back of the group with disappointed consuming his expression as he kept his eyes on the ground. "Hey Armin," Nicolette got his attention as she approached him. "You did great." She tried to encourage him but he only sighed and shook his head.

"I appreciate that, but I know I probably got one of the lowest grades." Armin insisted as he finally looked up at Nicolette.

"Do you really think I'm going to just stand here and let you feel bad for yourself when you ran over two miles ahead of me?"

"Yeah, before I got tired again and fell behind." Armin argued, looking back at his feet.

"You're not getting the point." Nicolette reached out to him, grabbing his chin and forcing his head up to look at her. "Yeah, you might have had a few rough spots there, but no one was expecting anything extraordinary out of you Armin, you and I both know that. Sure, you finished behind most everyone else, but you weren't last. And yeah, you might have fallen behind a few times, but no one thought you'd get as far as you did ahead of some of us. So you might not have the best score, who cares? What you did today was still pretty awesome whether you want to believe it or not."

"She's right." Reiner stepped from behind Nicolette, joining her in her little encouragement session. "You were even keeping up with me for a while, and that was impressive."

"T-Thanks guys." Armin still seemed a little hesitant to really believe them, but Nicolette could tell he was feeling slightly better and that was all she could have hoped for.

Armin didn't stay next to them long; as soon as he caught sight of Mikasa and Eren he walked away. As soon as he was further from him, Nicolette turned her gaze to Reiner with subtle hint of anger. "What you did was foolish." She insisted to him harshly.

"What?" Reiner seemed caught off guard by Nicolette's sudden change in attitude.

"What if you had been caught Reiner?"

"But I wasn't."

"But you could have been, then you would have failed, and I know how much making it to the top ten means to you! You'd so easily risk it all for the sake of someone who was weaker than you?"

"A minute ago you were singing his praises, now you're calling him weak?"

"What he did was impressive, but that doesn't mean he's still not weak and even you can't deny physically he's below you, yet you'd jeopardize your career to help him get a better score he doesn't deserve?"

"But didn't you see what it did to him? It motivated him!"

"And what if he hadn't? What if he would have just let you carry his gear, then you got caught? You didn't know how he was going to react."

"Why do you care what I do?"

"Because I care about you, idiot." Nicolette was over this argument, and didn't have the motivation to continue. He obviously wasn't going to see her point of view on the matter so she saw no reason to waste her breathe. When the instructor called for them to head back to the barracks Nicolette stormed off from Reiner to rejoin Connie and Sasha on the walk back.

"Armin did really great today." Connie remarked at dinner that night. "I wonder what got him so pumped, he just came out of nowhere."

"You did pretty great too Colette." Sasha added, "Looks like all your training really paid off."

Nicolette as less than thrilled with the conversation because it only reminded her of Reiner and his stupidity during the run and how he was too stubborn to see why it had bothered her so much. She sighed softly, nodding a silent thank you to Sasha for her compliment, but spared no actual input in the conversation.

"Tomorrow is search and destroy." Connie remarked.

"It's going to be so much more fun than the run!" Sasha was excited, search and destroy was her favorite training activity since she was so damn good at it.

"I bet Annie will get one of the highest scores, her strikes are always the deepest."

"But Mikasa will properly score higher." Sasha argued. "But I plan on being right up there with them!"

"Yeah but Nicolette always comes out on top for the search and destroy." Jean remarked as she sat down to join the group. "She's even better than Mikasa at it."

"That's because she has the best attention to her surroundings when maneuvering her gear. Most others don't pay much attention to anything but what's in front of them, everything else just sort of passes in a blur, but Colette takes in everything she can." Sasha bragged about Nicolette, playfully shoving her.

Normally Nicolette would have been flattered by Sasha's kind words, which she still was but she was too distracted to really react properly. Her eyes were on Jean; there was only ever one reason he'd still with them during dinner. They both exchanged glances from across the table; luckily Connie and Sasha were too wrapped up in their guesses in who would excel during tomorrows test to notice. "I'm really exhausted from the run, I think I'll head to bed a little early tonight." Nicolette made an excuse as she rose from the table.

"I swear you sleep more than anyone I know." Connie insisted as Nicolette began to walk away from the table with a soft smirk.

She didn't go to the barracks, or even the showers. Instead she went to an old barracks hall, one they didn't use to house cadets anymore because it was in too bad of shape. Instead of tearing it down, it was used as storage for random gear and even some nonperishable foods. Nicolette waited out by the back door, and in the darkness she saw a figure running up to her; it was Jean. "Took you long of enough." She whispered once he was closer. But Jean didn't respond, instead he pushed her up against the door as soon as his arms were close enough to reach her. He gripped her hips and pressed himself up against her as he nibbled playfully at her ear. "Can you at least open the door first?" She playfully shoved him away and he smirked at her.

"What can I say, it's been a while since we did this. I actually kind of missed you." He moved by her to start working on picking the doors lock; one of his unrecognized talents.

"Well you're the one who makes that call." Nicolette reminded him as he got the door opened and they walked inside.

"Yeah, and I really need to get some more time together in before you and Reiner finally make whatever you got going on a legitimate relationship."

"Do you really want to talk about Reiner right now? Nicolette rolled her eyes as she turned her back to Jean to lock the door only to be shoved back up against it as Jean wrapped his arms around her.

"As a matter of fact I do." He whispered rather seductively into her ear as he started to kiss down her neck. "You want to know what I think?"

"Not really."

"I think we're closer than you and him, I think we have something more." Jean insisted as he turned Nicolette around to kiss down her collarbone.

"And why is that?" Nicolette sighed softly, enjoying the feel of his lips against her skin as she ran her hands up his neck to grab a hold of his hair.

"Because we share a secret, a very deep and intimate secret, a secret that makes us trust one another."

"So what?"

"You don't really trust Reiner like you trust me, that's why you never do any of this with him, because you're afraid." Jean insisted as he slipped his hands up Nicolette's shirt to run his fingers up along the curves of her body.

"You know that's not true Jean, we've gone over this before." Nicolette reminded him as she tugged a little harder at his hair.

"You can keep spinning that lie all you want." Jean straightened his back and stepped away from Nicolette, gently pulling her to follow him as he made his way towards one of the bunks. As Nicolette followed him and fell into one of the beds with him, she found herself wondering if he was actually right. She tried not to put much thought into it; after all thinking about such matters while another man slowly took all your clothes wasn't entirely the best time. But still…what if Jean was right? That definitely wasn't going to be something she admitted out loud any time soon, especially to him.


	11. Chapter Eleven

Search and destroy was today; Nicolette's real time to shine. Today they'd be graded on their use of the omi-directional gear, how quickly they could locate a Titan (whoever was the first to strike would get more points towards their grade), and how deep their cuts were. . No matter how low her grade was on yesterday's run, today's grade would surely make up for it. She was pumped, and as they all rode to the start for the test, she was completely focused.

"I know you don't need me to tell you this, but good luck today." Reiner shouted out to her over the sound of horses dashing towards the forest. "I know you'll do great." Nicolette was still a little too angry with him to pretend like polite pleasantries would be accepted, and kept her eyes forward not even so much as offering him a stray glance. "Well…I guess I'll catch up with you later." He seemed to direct his horses away from her and she looked cautiously just to make sure he was gone.

"Talk about cold shoulder." Jean's voice carried to her ear from other side of where Reiner had just been. She snapped back to look at him, her eyebrows furrowed. "No need to get so angry." He laughed. "But it looks like there's trouble in paradise."

"You're face is about to have some trouble with my fist if you don't shut the hell up." Nicolette snapped at him. She was in no mood for his playful banter today. She had to be at the top of her game for this test, and Jean trying to distract her was the last thing she needed.

The moment the instructor gave the go ahead, bodies flew forward, springing from their horses and into the forest. Nicolette did her best to avoid the others, knowing too many people in one area would cause too much competition. It wouldn't be that much a problem if she was incredibly fast or sneaky like some others, but that wasn't exactly her specialty. Like Sasha had mentioned the previous night, the thing that made Nicolette so good at this exercise was that she never lost focus of her surroundings. Other kept their attention forward while she was able to shift her focus in order to take in every detail of what was around her; it was part of what made her excellent at using the omi-directional gear and a master of the search and destroy.

She imagined real Titans would have been much easier to spot than these stationary wooden cut outs with the fake naps to cut in to. But it didn't mean they were impossible to spot, just took a little more attention. Nicolette struck the moment she first got her eyes on one, dealing a suitable cut that would have surely done the job in a real case.

Every so often as Nicolette swung about, finding fake Titans and fake killing them she would catch sight of some of the others. For the longest time it seemed Jean was completing with Bertolt and Annie; a terrible mistake for him since his slices were often too shallow and Annie was above proficient with her strikes. Almost the entire test Eren seemed to be following Mikasa as if some kind of person battle as to who could strike better-the answer was clearly Mikasa. Jean finally did break away from Bertolt and Annie but he didn't even notice Connie was following him the entire time.

Once all the Titans that had been set up were hit the instructor finally gave the call for all the trainees to return to the start position for a quick rest before the ride back to the stables. Nicolette regrouped with Connie and Sasha. Connie seemed exhausted and was using his horse to keep himself up. Sasha on the other hand seemed completely energized. "That was amazing!" Sasha squealed. "I wish we could go again!"

"Again?" Connie sighed out in agony. "I'm way too tired to even wiggle my big toe.

"How tired could you really be, you were following Jean half the time. It's not like you used any actual energy." Nicolette pointed out.

"Being sneaky and crazy quick takes a lot out of you. And how did you know I was on his tail? I didn't see you anywhere."

"Exactly." Nicolette smirked.

"Nicolette." There was only person that still called her that, and when she turned her face was consumed by shock as she saw Mikasa behind her. "I wanted to congratulate." There was stunned silence among the group as they all stared wide eyed at the scene before them. "I saw you during the examination, and you were excellent. I just wanted to let you know that." Mikasa seemed actually shy about the little confession, and it was indeed odd since Mikasa never really complimented other than Eren and Armin and that was usually just to motivate them.

"Thank you. That means a lot to me." Nicolette smiled genuinely and Mikasa nodded politely before turning around and walking back to rejoin Eren and Armin.

"Whoa." Connie was the first to say anything after Mikasa left. "That was different."

"See, soon everyone will be boasting about Colette's badassery!"

"I'm not sure badassery is an actual world Sasha." Nicolette stated with a soft chuckle.

"It certainly is, it's been certified as a legitimate word in word to properly describe you." Sasha argued playfully.

"That's definitely not how it works." Connie remarked with a laugh as they all started to mount their horses. "So tomorrow is hand to hand combat, right?"

"Gonna' be tons of fun, I'm sure." Nicolette commented as they started to head back to the stables.

"Colette," Reiner shouted after her as their horse began at a slow pace. Nicolette turned back to look at him as his horse galloped to catch up with her. "Could we talk for a moment?" Something in his eyes seemed pretty intense, like this wasn't a conversation she was going to be thrilled to have.

"Sure." She murmured softly as she slowly steered her horse away from Sasha and Connie to bring herself closer to Reiner. "Is everything alright?"

"I wanted to apologize for upsetting you yesterday. The more I think about it, the more I know you're right. It was too risky of a thing for me to do and I shouldn't have argued with you about it."

Nicolette and Reiner very rarely ever had a disagreement, but when they did it always felt like he was the one always doing the apologizing probably because he knew how stubborn she could be about that sort of thing. Plus she honestly was the one who was usually right. Still, even after he admitted defeat she didn't want to seem like a total bitch, "I still shouldn't have snapped at you like that and I'm sorry."

Reiner maneuvered his horse closer to her and reached over to take her hand in his own, "I'm still glad you care so much about me that you'd be so concerned. It makes me feel like we're really doing something right here." He brought his hand back to him, both of them smiled softly at one another. As Nicolette returned her gaze forward as they caught up with the others she caught sight of Jean glaring back at both of them.

Dinner was a normal occasion that night. Connie and Sasha going on about the daily training and Colette interjecting her own opinions every so often but mostly just enjoying their company versus the conversation itself. Everyone in the dining hall seemed to be at a certain sense of peace. No overwhelming drama to really stir anything up among the cadets and it was nice for a change. But like always it was doomed to come to an end as Nicolette caught sight of Jean giving her a death glare from hell from across the room. She tried her best to ignore him, to involve herself more in Connie and Sasha's conversation but she could feel his eyes burning holes right through her. This wasn't like his usual playful glares, or even like the glares he'd shoot whenever he felt she went over the line with an insult, this was more like a glare fueled by intense pain and jealousy. She could see it all over his face. It was starting to become too much to even pretend to ignore, and finally without explanation to Connie or Sasha, she rose from her seat and closed the gap between her and Jean.

"You got a damn problem?" She tried her best to sound as intimidating as possible while still keeping her voice down as she casually sat down across the table from Jean.

"Yeah, you." He snapped at her. "You and your little pretend boyfriend, riding into the damn sunset like this is some kind of fairytale. How many storybooks have princesses who sleep with the knight in shining armor behind the prince's back?"

"First of all, he's not my boyfriend." Nicolette corrected him without hesitation. "Second, you'd be more like the court jester than the knight in shining armor. Third, we're not 'sleeping together'. We've never had sex, in case you've forgotten."

"Well maybe I want to."

"Of course you want to, you're a guy. But I made myself clear when we first started this arrangement-"

"It's an arrangement?"

"What else would it be?"

"A relationship." He stated bluntly.

"That implies some kind of emotionally connection, which we don't have."

"Speak for yourself."

Nicolette was caught off guard. She felt her heart skip a beat and her eyes widen as she looked at Jean with a certain sense of disbelief. "And what is that supposed to me?" She tried to sound calm as she asked.

"I know you're smart enough to figure it out, but it's not like it matters anyway so just forget it."

"Then why even say it!"

"Because I'm not afraid of my feelings like you."

"Bullshit," Nicolette rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms under her chest. "You've been pining away for Mikasa for how long exactly? And you can't so much as even look at her without blushing, much less confess the fact you're madly in love with her. And you honestly expect me to believe you feel a single fiber of affection for me when all you ever talk about is her? All you're trying to do is seduce me into sleeping with you with this whole fake jealousy act and it's really lame, even for you. If you wanna' get laid so damn bad go find someone willing to fuck you, because you're not getting any from me."

"Fine then, maybe I will."

"Fine."

"Fine!" Jean raised his voice a bit as he stood from his seat in a fit of rage before storming out from the dining hall. Luckily, everyone seem too engrossed in their own business to notice and Nicolette slowly made her own swift exit to head back to her barracks. It had been another oh so eventful day, but she was glad it was ending even if it wasn't on a high a note as she had been hoping for. She wasn't sure what was going happen tomorrow in terms of between her and Jean, but she was certain that'd be something better left to worry about when she crossed that bridge.


	12. Chapter Twelve

Nicolette had the ever so wonderful joy of being partnered with Thomas Wagner for the hand-to-hand combat training the day after the search and destroy exercise. She hated the way he always furrowed his eyebrows, mixed with his big dumb eyes it made for one incredibly annoying combination. He didn't talk much as they sparred, and despite assumingly being able to easily over power her physically he was too easy to take down.

As the training continued at a less than exciting pace, Nicolette couldn't help but find her eyes wondering every so often to catch glimpses of Reiner as he sparred off with Eren. She always admired how serious he was when he trained, taking every command to heart as he went about his way executing the requirements of the day. Even something as seemingly useless as hand-to-hand combat, he took it like a champion.

During her little peaks over in Reiner's direction she caught a scene unfolding; it seemed Reiner and Eren took it upon themselves to confront Annie on her less than motivated attitude as she was wondering about avoiding the training. There were two things Nicolette was certain of in this moment; One, Reiner would make sure to do everything in his power to make Annie look like a fool for not taking training seriously, and two, Annie would kick both their asses. Nicolette couldn't help but feel sorry for Eren as Reiner insisted he attempt to spar with Annie, and as she assumed it took not time for Annie to knock Eren straight down to the ground. Nicolette tried her best to muffle her laughter, but when Reiner was the one Annie knocked around she just rolled her eyes in disappointment.

The training went out without much more excitement and it was getting dark in no time. The more training and examinations they knocked out, the more excitement seemed to brew within the 104th. It was starting to sink in to this lot that soon they'd be graduating. Most the conversations seemed to be able trading tricks, boasting about skills, and betting on who would be in the top ten. That night at dinner that seemed to be all anyone was talking about really, the top ten predictions.

Nicolette sat with Sasha and Connie as usual, and Reiner even joined that night as well. Nicolette sat near Reiner, a rare occurrence for them actually. Every so often Reiner would even graze the side of his head against her thigh secretly under the table so no one could see. It made Nicolette blush and worked rather well to distract her against the conversation at hand as Sasha laid out her guesses for the top ten. Of course, it wasn't just Reiner playing against her focus; Jean kept shooting rather annoying glances their way too, obviously less than pleased she was sitting so close to Reiner. She was doing the best she could to ignore Jean at all costs and actually enjoy her close physical proximity with Reiner but the sound of raising voices seemed to grab everyone's attention and they all looked towards Eren as he seemed to be interrupting a conversation Jean had been having with Marco.

"Until five years ago, this used to be the interior too." Eren commented, although out of context Nicolette wasn't sure why he made this remark.

"What's your point Eren?" Jean seemed a little offended at Eren's sudden personal invitation into his own conversation with Marco.

"Jean," Eren began after setting his cup down on the table, "You don't need to go to the interior, I'd say your head is nice and spacious enough." Eren insulted Jean in a clear reference to Jean's less than secret ambition to join the military Peace to live in the interior.

Jean seemed flustered with irritation, possibly more so as Connie and Reiner chuckled softly at Eren's insult. "You little…" Jean began.

"Honing your Titan-killing skills to get away from the Titans, doesn't that seem like a weird system to you?" Eren seemed to come out of nowhere with this new found hatred for the concept of the Military Police, but it wasn't like he made his detest for it a secret before.

"You only say that now? Well, I want that stupid system to stay in place, for my sake."

"You piece of scum!" Eren shouted as he rose from his seat.

Jean seemed to follow suit, "Shut up! This is the real world!"

Nicolette actually felt a small hint of concern in the pit of her stomach. Just as Armin and Mikasa seemed to calm Eren down, she wished she could reach for Jean and pull him away. But she couldn't, so she didn't. Instead she sat in place next to Reiner and continued to watch.

As Mikasa came between the two of them and pulled Eren's hand away from Jean, Nicolette saw the faintest hint of jealousy burning in Jean's eyes at Mikasa's lingering hold on Eren's hand. And then as Jean reached for Eren, passionate jealousy radiating off him, Nicolette felt the strangest misplaced sense of her own off brand jealously. Jean's jealously of how close Mikasa and Eren were seemed to trigger a jealously in Nicolette for how much Jean truly longed for Mikasa. It was probably the oddest chain of emotions, and it baffled Nicolette to the point that she didn't even really pay any further attention to the scene before her as Eren took Jean down.

The instructor then made an appearance at the door, shifting the attention away from Eren and Jean. He inquired as to what the noise he had heard was, unknowingly referring to the thud Jean made when Eren dropped him to the ground. Mikasa was quick to defer the blame away from Eren and label it a matter of Sasha of passing gas which caused a fit of muffled giggles between all the cadets. After the instructor left things seemed to calm down a bit, although Eren and Jean now sat across from one another exchanging death glares.

"Well, that's enough excitement for me." Reiner finally spoke. "I think I'm going to head to sleep. Care to walk me to my cabin Colette?"

Nicolette forced her attention back on Reiner, smiling sweetly up at him as she nodded politely, "So now it's you in need of an escort to bed when you're the one always insisting you walk him to my cabin?"

"What can I say? Sometimes even I get a little lonely." Luckily for Nicolette, Jean was still too involved in his staring match with Eren to notice her leaving with Reiner as they both stood from their seats before saying goodnight to Sasha and Connie.

"You know, I've been waiting for this for a long time." Reiner mused out loud as they walked outside together, holding hands and both looking forward into the darkness as they carried on forward to the barracks.

"You mean graduation?" Nicolette further inquired.

"Well yes, but to me it's so much more than that." Reiner spoke softly, looking down at her with a certain softness in his eyes. "I'm glad we're alone now, because there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about Nicolette." Reiner only ever called her Nicolette when he had something very serious to say, and she felt butterflies swarming her stomach from the way he was looking at her. He stopped in his tracks and turned himself to face her and placed both his hands on her shoulders as he gazed gently down at her. "I'm not going to tell you that I love you, even though I really want to." He started simply which made her legs feel jelly. "Because if I'm honest with myself I'm scared that I might be wrong. I know I feel something very strong for you, and it very well may be love but I don't want to say it until I'm absolutely sure. I know you may be angry at me because we've had so long to sort this all out, we've been so slow with this process and I'm afraid you may be getting impatient and I can't tell you how badly it scares me to think you may grow tired of waiting. I would never ask you to wait, you know that? But I wouldn't exactly be happy if you decided not to…It's confusing, really. Now I feel like I'm babbling like an idiot."

"Reiner…" Nicolette tried to search for something to say, something to reassure him she felt exactly the same but she was completely lost in her own mind as if she had suddenly forgotten every single word she knew. So instead she just said nothing. She reached her hand up to gently press her palm against his face and she smiled sweetly up at him, stroking her fingertips softly against his cheek as he returned her gaze.

Reiner moved his hand to press on top of hers as she continued to gently caress his face and he chuckled softly under his breath. "You have no idea how much I don't deserve you." He stated in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. She didn't argue, not because she agreed, but because he didn't give her a chance; he slowly moved her hand away from her face but while still holding it in his grasp he leaned forward to kiss her.

He closed to small gap between them and in a swift motion that happened too fast for Nicolette to even process Reiner caught her in gentle kiss. His other hand dropped from her shoulder and moved to wrap around her waist while her free hand instinctively moved to press softly against his chest while they kissed. She was afraid at any given moment her legs would give out from underneath her, but feeling his strong arm around her reassured her even if that happened he hold her against him.

This was the perfect moment. But for some God forsaken reason, as Nicolette stood there in the darkness kissing the world's most perfect man she could not for the life of her get Jean out of her mind.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

_*****Hello lovelies! I just wanted to first say thank you for your continued reading for my little saga here, because you seriously can't begin to imagine how incredibly happy it makes me! Second I wanted to give you a little heads-up about this chapter; this chapter will go over the top ten cadets and what not, which I will be altering ever so slightly in order to fit my story more accurately. I debated for some time over exactly which character to snub, in a sense, in order to fit my own character into the top and I'd like to think I made a decent decision which will result in Krista Lenz being excluded completely from the top, as well as a few others being shifted down a peg to accommodate my view of where Nicolette would fall in the ranking. I do hope this doesn't offend anyone, and if it does I do apologize but after all this is a fanfic and I've seen bigger changes than this made before in my experience so I hope you all can respect my decision to make this alteration and as always I hope you enjoy!*****_

Tonight was the big night. After two days of the instructors carefully grading and more than likely debating, tonight they'd reveal the rankings of the 104th at the graduation ceremony and there was excitement radiating throughout the barracks. The cadets had the day off of course to prepare for tonight as well as rest from their ruthless exanimations. As always Sasha seemed the most excited, bouncing about cheering as she recited her favorite list of possible top ten cadets. Nicolette was trying to act as calm she could about it, but in truth she was just as excited. In fact, the excitement about graduation had successfully distracted her from her awkward love triangle situation all day.

"Do you think I have a chance?" Sasha asked hopefully as she flung herself down on Nicolette's bed.

"Of being in the top ten?" Nicolette smirked with a soft chuckle as Sasha shook her head furiously. "I don't see why not. As unconventional as you are, you're one of the best at search and destroy and you have a great knack for combat in one of the most awkwardly amazing ways."

"Awww, you never say such nice things about me, what has you in such a wonderful mood?"

"I guess it's just all the graduation excitement."

"Orrr, it's because of Reiner." Sasha hinted with a giggle. "How was your romantic moonlit walk last night after dinner?"

"Well, first of all it was pretty cloudy out so not really much moonlight." Nicolette joked.

"Look, you're making jokes! You never make jokes!"

"Second," Nicolette began with a shy smile, "He kissed me."

"What!?" Sasha's jaw seemed to drop right down to the ground as she shot up and grabbed Nicolette by the shoulders. "He's never done that before, has he!?"

"Keep your voice down." Nicolette shushed Sasha she best she could, trying to calm her down. "and yeah he has, just never on the lips."

"Oh adorable! Your first kiss!" Sasha continued which brought on a rather sudden pain right in Nicolette's stomach at the sudden realization that Reiner was not in fact her first kiss. Jean was.

Nicolette recalled the first time Jean ever kissed her. It was when he first asked her to meet him at the supply cabin. It had been months after that one morning when she was looking for Connie and instead stumbled on Jean pleasuring himself in the barracks. He had been making moves on her and so on and told her he wanted to talk to her about something serious. She had foolishly assumed it was going to be an apology for the way he had been acting; instead it was a rather straight forward proposition for them to enter a secret physical "relationship" for lack of a better term. At first Nicolette was so stunned and disgusted, and she refused him flat out. He argued his case, stating he wasn't looking for anything more than less than innocent company, and that he wouldn't push her to do anything she wasn't comfortable with. Nicolette remembered the passion in his eyes as he basically pleaded for her to consider his request. Before Nicolette could even roll her eyes at him before he had stepped forward so fast, pressing himself to her and locking his lips with hers. It wasn't that forceful. It was like his own way of trying to convince her it would be worth it. At first she was so stunned by his action she couldn't move, and then she just gave in and returned his kiss. Something about it was so sensual. At the time it hadn't even registered to Nicolette that it was her first kiss. But it had been. Jean was her first kiss, not Reiner.

"Nicolette, you alright?" Sasha's voice tore Nicolette back from the depths of her memory as she recalled the moment in its entirety. "You kind of spaced out for a second."

"Just thinking." Nicolette felt the blush burn against her cheeks and Sasha smiled.

"Thinking about Reiner." Sasha teased as she playfully elbowed Nicolette in the ribs.

"Stop messing around, we need to start getting ready." Nicolette managed to calm Sasha down and they finished getting all dolled up in their uniforms for the graduating ceremony.

After the sunset they all headed out to the ceremony grounds where all 218 cadets lined up in alphabetical order according to their last names. The instructors took the stage in front of them and every cadet saluted their superiors before them before the ceremony carried on. A speech was given, praising their hard work and determination; if was just a bunch of fluff that most seemed to struggled to pay attention to. There were a few, like Eren and Marco, who seemed to hang on to every word and not just because they were waiting for the top ten ranks, but because they lived for this moment.

"And now for your top ten," One of the instructors began and suddenly the energy between the cadets seemed to perk right on up as all their eyes stared hopefully forward with hopes of hearing their own names called. "The top ten will be read in order from rankings one to ten and is as follows," As if all at once everyone seemed to lean forward and turned their attention on high, "Mikasa Ackerman, Reiner Braun, Bertolt Hoover, Annie Leonhart, Eren Yeager, Jean Kirstein, Nicolette Gregor, Marco Bott, Connie Springer, and Sasha Blouse." There were 209 faces of disappointed, 9 faces of self pride, and one face of stunned but subtle joy-Nicolette. "Will the top ten ranked cadets of the 104th Trainees Squad please step forward." As instructed they all moved to stand in front of the other 209 cadets, all with their heads high with pride as the instructor carried on with his speech.

Nicolette didn't care if the instructor said the sky was green and the grass was blue; she was ranked number 7 out of 218 cadets. Everything she had worked so incredibly hard for, every single moment of training and studying made this single moment now completely worth all the strife she had went through to achieve this accomplishment. In truth she hadn't started this journey to be ranked 7th, or even 50th, but just to graduate in general really, but yet she now found herself among the best of the best and she couldn't have thought of a more satisfying way for this training to have ended. The first chapter of her dream to becoming a solider had officially ended, and now the real story was about to begin.

The celebration was intense that night. Sasha and Connie danced awkwardly together without any music, to overcome with joy to really care. Reiner stayed at Nicolette's side, shamelessly keeping his arm wrapped warmly around her shoulder as they laughed at Connie and Sasha while they carried on dancing. But the real attention seemed to be all about Eren. He had a rather impressive group of people all leaning on his every word as he carried on about his insistence on joining the Scout Regiment despite being one of the select few able to join the Military Police.

"We can't beat them!" Thomas Wagner seemed to shout as if to argue Eren's determination to join the Scouts, and earning more attention their way than before. Silence seemed to ripple across the masses and Thomas seemed to regret having spoken so loudly, but still continued on, "you know how many tens of thousands have been eaten so far. The answer was clear after we lost twenty percent of our population. Humanity can't beat the Titans."

"So?" Eren seemed completely unmoved by Thomas' outburst. "You're gonna' give up because you think we can't win? Yes, humanity has lost so far but only because we were clueless about the Titans!" Eren argued on, "Material warfare is useless against them and we lost. But the information we gained in battle will lead to further hope. Are we just going to throw away all the advances in fighting techniques that cost of tens of thousands of lives so we can be Titan fodder? The hell with that! I'm going to drive every last Titan and leave these cramped walls! That's my dream. Humanity hadn't truly been defeated yet." After his little soap box moment, Eren was now overrun with emotions-that much was obvious-and took a swift exit from the celebration with everyone's eyes following him in shock.

"Guess the party if over." Connie suggested trying to break the now intense mood that was settling over all the cadets.

"We should probably get some rest." Nicolette suggested. "We have a pretty full schedule tomorrow."

"Routine maintenance, how exciting." Sasha rolled her eyes before sticking her tongue out.

"Want me to walk you to your cabin?" Reiner offered as he finally removed his arm from Nicolette.

"No, that's alright. You haven't really had much time to celebrate with anyone else other than my shoulder all night." Nicolette commented with a soft blush. "Besides, I'll have Sasha to protect me." Nicolette insisted. "If I don't drag her stubborn ass to bed now she'll stay up all night celebrating."

"Well, goodnight then, number seven." Reiner smirked playfully.

"I'd respond by calling you number two if it didn't sound too awkward." Nicolette joked which caused a small laughter to emerge from their little group before she headed off with Sasha at her side.

"We're in the top ten, can you believe it?" Sasha mused out loud as they walked outside and headed back to the barracks.

"Honestly, not really. It feels so surreal."

"I knew you'd get in for sure." Sasha carried on. "Although I was certain you'd get higher, at least higher than Eren that's for sure."

"I'm happy to in the top ten at all, I'm not about to get choosey over who exactly I beat."

"Well sure seemed sour about getting ranked behind Eren." Sasha suggested.

"Really? I just assumed he'd be so excited about getting to join the Military Police he wouldn't care what number he was as long as it was in the top."

"I had thought the same thing but something about Eren just seems to always piss him off."

"Well let him be pissed. Who cares, right? We're in the top ten and that's all that's matters!" Nicolette smirked proudly as she wrapped her arm around Sasha. "Besides we have bigger things to worry about now."

"Oh really? Like what dress you're going to wear to your wedding after Reiner proposes to you?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of what regiment you're going to join. Have you put any thought into it?"

"Well…now that you mention it…not really, no. What about you."

"That's easy." Nicolette began with a soft sigh falling from her lips. "As annoying and dramatic as Eren can be we do have one thing in common, we both joined the military to achieve our goals of joining the Scout Regiment. And that's exactly what I'm going to do."


	14. Chapter Fourteen

"How did I get stuck with this group?" Nicolette whispered to herself as she leaned against a cannon, watching the others are they halfheartedly worked on their maintenance chores. To her horror she was stuck with Eren, Mina, Thomas and Samuel, but at least she had Connie and Sasha there with her, but Eren? He was one of her least favorite people, for sure. She found him incredibly annoying with his constant swears that he'd kill all Titans. They might have shared a passion against Titans and a strong desire to join the Scout Regiment, but the way he acted about it made him a bother to be around.

Nicolette was in her own little world, just trying to make it through the day without wanting to chuck Eren over the wall. Not to mention it was too beautiful of a day to let this lot of annoying morons ruin her good mood. She was named 7th in her graduating class, she had her omi-directional gear fastened comfortable around her, and she was about to join the Scout Regiment. She wasn't going to let anything ruin this day.

"You're joining the Scouts?" Eren's sudden shocked tone of voice begged for Nicolette's attention and she turned to look over in his direction as he was staring in disbelief at Connie. "But you were set on the Military Police?"

"Yeah, I was but…" Connie started to defend himself but seemed to be lost for any actual works to do so.

"Sounds like your speech yesterday won him over." Mina interjected.

"Mind your own business, I decided it on my own!" Connie shouted defensively.

Nicolette wanted to say something, ask Connie why he hadn't told her any of this. After all, he was one of her closet friends yet he didn't think to share this little tid bit of information with her? She found herself actually upset over the fact, angry almost, that he'd keep something like that from her. But she couldn't say anything, she didn't want to make a scene.

"Don't be embarrassed, you're not the only one." Thomas added, trying to make Connie feel better.

"Everyone," Sasha slowly approached the group, grinning like a fool and Nicolette was frightened Sasha would also proclaim her determination to join the Scouts but instead she opened her jacket to show off a nice hunk of meat she was hiding, "I brought some meat from the officer's storehouse!" Everyone started to tell Sasha she needed to put it back but then as she insisted it was no big deal they all started to change their attitude and insist she'd have some as well.

Everyone seemed to have some awkward new found spirit of motivation as they returned to their work and Nicolette returned her focused on the cannon she was cleaning but then the wind started to pick up. No one else seemed to really notice but something about it seemed to bother Nicolette in an odd way, like something bad was about to happen.

Then came the strike of lightening and before she even had a moment to blink, there was a Titan. Not just a Titan…she had heard the stories enough to know, it was the Colossal Titan. For a moment the world seemed to stand completely still. Everyone had their eyes fixed on the horror before them, with eyes wide and jaws dropped. No one said a word. No one moved. But the Colossal Titan did. Before anyone could even registered what was happening, the wall busted right under them. A blaze of hot steam blew with such a force it knocked them all down right off the Wall.

Nicolette could hear all the gears turning as everyone shot their lines into the Wall to cease their falls, but then Connie screamed, "Samuel!" Nicolette's eyes scanned as fast as they could, trying to see through the steam that was still clouding her to find Samuel, but just as her eyes caught sight of him she saw Sasha running down the wall after him and shooting her line to grip him by stabbing through his ankle. Just as relief came over them all that Samuel was now safe, a new found sense of horror seemed to overcome them as everyone noticed the Wall had been broken by the Colossal Titan.

"The Titans are going to get in!" Thomas shouted. Nicolette held her breath, he was right. She knew she was going to have to face Titans sooner or later, but she never imagined it would be like this. She never imagined there would be innocent lives in danger that she'd have to protect. She looked up at Eren, the same passion he always had burning in his eyes was now in intense flames. He was determined to do everything he could. Everyone else was horrified, but not Eren. He was stern and remained focused. Nicolette may have disliked him, but in this moment she was impressed that he kept his head about him while everyone else seemed too far off.

"Mounted Maintenance Squad Four, prepare for battle!" Eren shouted, getting everyone else's attention as he drew his swords. He dropped down from his stance on the wall, swinging himself as he shouted orders for everyone to target the Colossal Titan. Everyone stared in awe at Eren as he worked his gear to bring himself back to the top of the Wall so effortlessly.

"What the hell are we waiting for?" Nicolette shouted to the rest of the group who still all looked way to petrified to dare move from where they were standing. She wasn't going to waste time trying to rally them, Eren was up there facing off with the Colossal Titan and Nicolette wasn't going to make him do it alone. She loosened her wires enough to drop herself with enough force to swing her body up as Eren did and ran against the side of the wall to pick up speed as she flung upwards and released her wires. She landed back down on the top of the Wall just as the Colossal Titan swung its arm and took out the cannons.

Eren was on the other side now after he had maneuvered to avoid the Colossal Titan's strike against the cannons, and he had his wires in the Colossal Titan's shoulder. He brought himself forward to attack but it reached out for him. Eren managed to swing himself around to avoid it, and landed on its arm and started running up towards its neck. What he needed was a distraction, and Nicolette was going to give him one. She ran over to get the Colossal Titan's attention, It caught sight of her but despite her best efforts it still seemed too focused on Eren to even spare her a swing. It lifted its arm to shake Eren off but he released his line and reshot in time to swing himself around and aim straight for the nap of the neck.

Just as Nicolette lost sight of Eren another cloud of intense steam seemed to cloud around her. It cleared faster than the last time, and as she started to see her surroundings once more…the Colossal Titan was gone. She caught sight of Eren as he stared at the empty space where it had been, dumbfounded as he just sort of drifted in midair before it really sank in. "Eren!" Nicolette shouted his arm as he started falling and he regained her attention in time to shoot a line to stop his fall. Just then Thomas and Connie seemed to finally join her up on her wall and shouted down to Eren asking if he had defeated the Titan. While Thomas and Eren exchange words, Connie went straight to Nicolette.

"Are you alright?" He asked her, genuine concern on his face.

"I'm fine, I just wish I could have been more help to Eren, he had a great shot of actually getting something done here…" Nicolette mused out loud as she turned her sights on Eren who had a rather disappointed look about him.

"I'm sorry, I let him get away." Eren almost sounded heartbroken about it.

"What are you apologizing for, we were scared stiff-" Thomas tried to reassure Eren but Connie interrupted.

"Hey, this is no time for that! The Wall has been broken! We have to hurry and seal it before any Titans get in again."

"What are you doing?" A random voice caught everyone off guard and they all turned to see a member of the Garrison Squad leaping up on to the Wall where the Colossal Titan had attack. "The Colossal Titan Response Operation is already underway." He informed him harshly, as if he thought they were all slacking off. "Return to HQ at once! And anyone who came in contact with it, remember to give a report." He ordered them, and after a quick salute, Nicolette and the others headed back towards HQ.

There were screams. Nicolette could barely make out the sound of cannons blasting in the distance over the masses of frightened people screaming at the top of their lungs as if they thought if they screamed loud enough it might scare off the Titans. Nicolette was frightened too, but she wasn't them. She was a solider now and she didn't have time to scream.

Head Quarters was a mad house. All the recently graduated cadets were running around like chickens with their heads cut off. They all had one thing in common; they were scared out of their minds. Some did their best to mask their fear, others were sobbing uncontrollably. Nicolette even caught sight of Hanna and Franz sharing a promising moment of young love as they embraced dramatically like they'd never see each other again. Nicolette thought of Reiner…the reason they had avoided being like that so for long was in a way out of fear that one of them not make it long enough for them to truly have what they wanted. She wanted to see Reiner again before they were assigned out, to kiss him again, but she knew that would only make it worse.

The cadets all gathered to receive their orders. From the sound of it, the cadets were basically being entrusted with the middle guard. Everyone seemed to remain level headed as they received instructions, until of course they were told the advance team had been wiped out. Discord seemed to spread like wild fire. The fact Titans had breached the wall wasn't much of a help for their mortality either. After being dismissed there was a stampede of feet as everyone rushed to make last minute adjustments to their gear and fill up their gas.

In truth, Nicolette wasn't ready for this. But she knew she had no other choice. She knew she had the skill in battle to be successful, but her confidence was wearing thin. This wasn't how she wanted to prove her, but she was going to none the less.


End file.
